When U.S. presidents dabbled in science…

When U.S. presidents dabbled in science…

Who’s Thomas Jefferson?

A person of many skills, Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the U.S. He was the creator of the Declaration of American Independence and a founding father of the nation. He was the nation’s first secretary of state (1790-93) and the second vp (1797-1801) – a place he held after reluctantly standing for presidency and dropping by three votes. He grew to become the nation’s third president after a bitterly fought election in 1801 and served two phrases, holding the place until 1809.

An undated picture of a 1800 portrait depicting Thomas Jefferson by artist Rembrandt Peale.
| Photograph Credit score:
REMBRANDT PEALE / AP

Jefferson was liable for the Louisiana Buy from Napoleon for $15 million. Buying the Louisiana territory from the French in 1803 almost doubled the dimensions of the U.S., making it one of many largest international locations on the earth. Jefferson additionally authorised the exploration of the American west and north west by way of the Lewis and Clark expedition (1804-06).

Moreover, Jefferson was the founder and architect of the College of Virginia. And when he offered his private library to the federal authorities in Washington in 1815, it served because the core of the Library of Congress.

Jefferson’s floor sloth

Having are available in second within the race to be the president behind John Adams in 1797, Jefferson grew to become vp based on the system that was in place then. He made a troublesome 10-day journey to the capital – Philadelphia at that time – in an effort to be sworn in because the vp.

At across the similar time he grew to become vp of the nation, Jefferson was additionally made the president of the American Philosophical Society. Jefferson, whose curiosity in fossils was well-known by this time and who had already acquired fossils from pals and acquaintances who knew of his curiosity for many years, determined to hold a wagon load of fossils to current to the society.

Amongst these have been the reward despatched by Colonel John Stuart of Greenbrier County, Virginia (now West Virginia) together with Stuart’s speculation stating the animal was “of the Lion form.” Finding out the bones, Jefferson too got here to the conclusion that they have been from an animal “of the lion form, however of most exaggerated dimension.” He known as it “the Nice-claw or Megalonyx” owing to the animal’s bulk, which was anticipated to be 3 times that of a lion. Together with his induction as society president pending, Jefferson was scheduled to current a paper on March 10.

As destiny would have it, Jefferson went to a guide retailer following his arrival in Philadelphia in March 1797. Right here, he encountered the September 1796 difficulty of London’s Month-to-month Journal, which, as future would have it, contained an engraving of a fossilised skeleton. The fossils from Paraguay that have been engraved – mounted by then within the Royal Cupboard of Pure Historical past in Madrid, Spain – have been similar to Jefferson’s “Megalonyx,” however recognized to be a relative of the sloth.

Realising that his classification was most likely flawed, Jefferson revised the paper he was to current, deleting all references to “Megalonyx” and changing them with a extra generic time period, an animal “of the clawed form.” Jefferson learn his paper, “A Memoir on the Discovery of Sure Bones of a Quadruped of the Clawed Form within the Western Components of Virginia” for the society on March 10 and it was printed in 1799 in Transactions of the American Philosophical Society.

Fossil specimen of Megalonyx jeffersonii.

Fossil specimen of Megalonyx jeffersonii.
| Photograph Credit score:
Daderot / Wikimedia Commons

Jefferson’s legacy in science

It’s value noting that when Jefferson enlisted Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in 1803 for what went on to be the Lewis and Clark expedition to discover western U.S. after the Louisiana Buy, he made it some extent that their Corps of Discovery was properly positioned to make scientific observations.

By 1804, Jefferson was credited because the discoverer of the Megalonyx, which, by then, had been recognized as an animal associated to the sloth household. Lower than twenty years later, in 1822, French naturalist Anselme Desmarest gave the formal title for the extinct animal: Megalonyx jeffersonii.

Jefferson’s floor sloth was recovered from Ice Age websites within the midwest U.S. A big, closely constructed animal, it had a big cranium with a blunt snout and a large jaw. The peg-like enamel have been smooth and therefore wore down sooner than laborious enamel, that means the enamel of those animals grew all through their lifetime.

Jefferson’s scientific paper about these bones is alleged to mark the start of vertebrate palaeontology in North America.

Do you know?

Throughout a dinner honouring Nobel Prize winners of the western hemisphere on the White Home on April 29, 1962, president John F. Kennedy paid tribute to Jefferson with the next comment: “I believe that is essentially the most extraordinary assortment of expertise, of human information, that has ever been gathered collectively on the White Home, with the attainable exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”

Who’s Abraham Lincoln?

The sixteenth U.S. president, Abraham Lincoln’s presidency coincided largely with the American Civil Warfare. Born to folks who have been poor and largely self-educated, Lincoln certified as a lawyer in 1836. From 1834-42, Lincoln sat within the state legislature, earlier than being elected to the Congress in 1846 whereas representing the Whig Celebration. He joined the brand new Republican Celebration in 1856 and ran as their presidential candidate in 1860.

Undated file photo of the 16th U.S. President, Abraham Lincoln.

Undated file picture of the sixteenth U.S. President, Abraham Lincoln.
| Photograph Credit score:
AFP

He made his opposition to slavery blatantly clear throughout his campaigning and his victory provoked a disaster as not all have been in favour of the abolition of slavery. Civil Warfare broke out in 1861 and Lincoln noticed it as his obligation to protect the Union. In January 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation to free all slaves – an necessary gesture to stress that the civil struggle and the Union’s wrestle on the time as a struggle to finish slavery.

Lincoln is finest remembered for preserving the Union in the course of the American Civil Warfare, even when it meant assuming extra energy than any president earlier than him. His position because the emancipator of enslaved folks not solely earned him the nickname The Nice Emancipator, but in addition gave him an attraction that continues to at the present time – not simply amongst his compatriots, however even these from different international locations.

Lincoln’s patented invention

An adept boatman, Lincoln as soon as had a stranded flatboat get off a mill dam. He did this by shifting the cargo, earlier than drilling a short lived gap to let the bilge water out. When serving his time period within the U.S. Congress from 1847-49, he as soon as observed a captain make use of planks and empty barrels to elevate his stranded vessel off a river sandbar.

These incidents have been the inspiration for Lincoln’s invention, a tool for buoying vessels over shoals. Theoretically, Lincoln’s adjustable buoyant air chambers may very well be constructed into or added to any boat. On precept, these may very well be lowered into the water and inflated to elevate the boat over hurdles within the water.

Lincoln utilized for his patent on March 10, 1849, precisely 52 years after Jefferson had made a scientific contribution. The patent titled “Buoying Vessels over Shoals” with the quantity 6,469 was issued on Might 22. With the assistance of Walter Davies, a Springfield mechanic, Lincoln created a patent mannequin too. Lincoln stays the one U.S. president who has a patent of his personal.

Patent model of Lincoln’s invention.

Patent mannequin of Lincoln’s invention.
| Photograph Credit score:
David and Jessie Cowhig / flickr

Lincoln’s legacy in science

Lincoln’s invention was by no means produced and there’s no proof to counsel that he even sought to place the thought into manufacturing. Whereas doubts stay as as to whether it could have been a helpful invention, it does have an idea to it – one that’s scientifically tenable. The execution, nonetheless, was awry, because the difficult system of poles, pulleys, ropes, and baggage, made it a cumbersome contraption.

What’s puzzling, nonetheless, is the truth that this element about Lincoln being the one president with a patent of his personal isn’t that well-known. This, regardless of Lincoln being Lincoln, and the innumerable research on almost each facet of his life, character, and presidency. What’s extra, even some acclaimed biographies fully omit this a part of Lincoln’s life.

The truth that Lincoln conceived and patented an invention with none actual scientific coaching is one thing that maybe wants somewhat extra consideration. If the invention had been less complicated and extra sensible, it may have even freed boats that have been stranded after being captured by river sand. The Nice Emancipator, as everyone knows, went on to play a pivotal position in releasing folks as a substitute throughout his tenure as president, taking a number of steps to handle the problem of slavery.

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